Aptamer Group PLC (APTA) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Aptamer Group PLC Results Investor Presentation. [Operator Instructions] The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. However, the company can review all the questions submitted today and publish responses where it's appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to CEO, Arron Tolley. Good afternoon to you sir.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Aptamer Group's half-year results for the 6 months to December '24. So we'll kick off the presentation by doing a quick introduction to the presenting team and the company. And then we'll take a look at the financials before beginning the operational update and taking some questions. So please feel free to submit some nice and easy questions as we go along. So a quick introduction to me. So I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Aptamer Group. I've got a PHD in Structural Biology and Biophysics, and I founded the company in 2008, when I realized there was a scientific and commercial opportunity in the technology platform. I've run the day-to-day activities of the company for the past 12 years, and essentially, the company was an early promoter of Aptamer or Aptamer Technologies as a commercial offering. And my role broadly has been the translation of science from bench to market ready, and position the company for our AIM listing, which took place in December 2021.

Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Andrew Rapson, CFO, Aptamer Group. I have over 20 years experience now as chartered accountant. I joined Aptamer in August '22 and took on the role as CFO in August '23, worked in [indiscernible] environment now for the last 10 years.

So what is Aptamer Group. So we're a biotechnology company headquartered in York in the north of England. We have a proprietary platform for the discovery of high-value molecules called Aptamer which are innovative, cost-effective alternatives to traditional antibodies. So our business model is essentially around solving high-value complex problems for pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies on a fee-for-service basis and then we essentially license that technology for commercial exploitation. On that basis, we try to retain intellectual property rights wherever possible. And the objective really is to generate more and more revenue from a passive income stream over time. So building this critical mass on licensable product is a key strategy that runs in parallel to generating fee-for-service revenues. So in order to do this, we focus in three key areas. So customer services, where we support research tools, developing molecules that support research, quality control relating to bioprocessing solutions. We also develop reagents that -- for using diagnostic applications such as the reagents used in COVID tests and so on. And we also work in therapeutic areas, developing molecules that can be used as delivery systems or molecules that support from development processes for big pharma. So as a company, we have a global customer base, which includes 75% of the world's top 20 pharma companies and pretty much all of the top 10 companies. And we are recognized as a global player in a fast-growing space forecasted to grow into a multibillion-dollar industry over the next decade. With annual growth rate estimated to be anywhere between around 20% and 28%. So this offers significant potential upside for investors. So we have two commercially trading platforms. So one platform is based on DNA or RNA molecules, which is at the top left-hand side of the slide. And the second, which has been more recently launched runs off a molecular scaffold that is essentially a hybrid of DNA and proteins, making these molecules more like a peptide, which essentially combines the benefits of an antibody and an aptamer. So using these two platforms, we create these potentially high valuable modules that binds specifically to target with high affinity and are highly specific, and serve as alternatives to antibodies. As a company, we've got a rich IP portfolio, around 30 patents, and we've got several others that are currently being drafted. So there's many technical advantages to this platform over antibodies such as aptamers are faster to discover. They're smaller, they're more stable, they're easier to produce and to have a binder. They offer essentially a lower cost, more scalable manufacturing solution. And also, they're animal-free, which is always good wherever possible. So because our platform is in vitro, which means it runs off, essentially, [indiscernible] test tubes, and not based on animals. We can very precisely tailor the discovery process to generate binders for specific applications such as rapidly discovering molecules that can serve as delivery vehicles, therapeutic applications like liver delivery tools, or discovering molecules that serve as the main component in diagnostic applications such as things like Alzheimer's tests or COVID tests. So a good way really to think of the platform is a next-generation solution designed to meet the current needs of pharma partners, giving them access to rapid discovery services with the final products having strong competitive advantages over existing platforms such as antibodies. And this is why we have such a strong and growing interest in the services that we provide. So I'll pass on now to Andrew, who will go through the finances for the past period

Thanks, Arron. I can just move on to the next slide. And I'll move on to the income statement, there we go. So if we look at the income statement, firstly, revenue for the half year was GBP 0.7 million, that's an improvement of the GBP 0.3 million we reported in the prior period. We continue the rebuild of revenue and starting the period with a more significant sales pipeline this time than we had in the previous period, and that allowed for the revenue growth versus last year. Pleasingly, the revenue growth is sufficient to produce the gross profit of GBP 0.4 million, a 56% gross margin to contribute towards overhead coverage. We had a number of contracts that progressed well during the period, resulting in us delivering working binders to customers for testing and then potentially downstream licensing. We have a strong finish to the period in contract closing, and we've taken GBP 0.5 million of contract orders through to H2 for FY '25. And on that note, there's two key areas really that impact conversion of the order book to revenue. And it's worth explaining or just mentioning those briefly. Firstly, the likelihood that we'll be scientifically successful and thereby be able to complete the contract. Typically, we achieved circa 60% to 70% on a conversion of sales contract value to revenue. We refer to this as scientific attrition. And the second key area is understanding when target material will be delivered by the customer for us to begin work. It's not unusual for us to wait maybe 6 months for target materials to be manufactured and delivered to us, for us to be able to raise an Optimer against it. It's only then when we start working on the target material in the lab that we can start recognizing revenue. So hopefully, that helps to explain a little bit sometimes how we have a period of time between sales pipeline closing and then ultimately recognizing as revenue. Further to the order book, pleasingly, we've got GBP 5.1 million of potential deals that are currently working through the sales pipeline and GBP 3.2 million of that is considered to be in advanced stage of negotiation now, where we have issued a proposal to the customer, we're either working through the proposal queries or we're working through the contracting process. Again, these stages of the pipeline can take a little time to complete. As much as possible, we aim to retain the IP for future downstream commercialization of aptamers that we developed for customers. And this often means the contracting process becomes more involved than what you might typically expect. I mean, there -- the benefits then from working through those IP discussions being the potential to generate future licensing revenues, which is ultimately the strategy that we've adopted. And it's pleasing to see the fruits of this in the period as a number of licensing opportunities has grown. If you look at the admin expenses, they've reduced to GBP 1.5 million from GBP 1.7 million in the prior period. This reduction as a result of a leaner [indiscernible] leadership cost base and a further reduction in head count from 34 at the end of June to 28 now at the end of December. We'll continue to monitor the operating costs and have managed to reduce our overall operating cost of GBP 3 million per annum during this period. And like we say, most of this reduction is around the senior leadership changes, but that hasn't affected the scientific capabilities within the company. Next slide then is the other operating income, which has jumped up in this period. That's -- there's two income streams in there. There's a grant income from partnering on a European Eurostar project, where we successfully delivered Optimer binders for use in medical devices to detect potential disease. And the other element in there is rental income. So we reported in the prior period that we sublet part of the office space, which is part of our efforts to reduce our operational footprint, and we're seeing the benefits of that rental income with a full half year period reported here. Ultimately then, the adjusted EBITDA loss was GBP 1.1 million for the period versus GBP 1.8 million for the prior period, which is mostly a result of the improved pipeline and results in revenues generated. We look then at the cash flow. We can see that the net cash flow from operations improved to GBP 1.3 million versus GBP 1.8 million for the prior period due to a reduction in the cost base and improved gross profit. GBP 949,000 outflow from operations was really driven by EBITDA loss, the [ difference in EBITDA ] loss being director fees that were paid in shares rather than cash and so benefiting us here on the cash flow statement. There's GBP 339,000 reported as changes in working capital, and that reflects the increase in debtors that we saw at the period end. There is a significant amount of our revenue recognized through November and December, and they were coming from large pharma contracts who typically contract to us through platforms like Scientist.com and Science Exchange, where the payment terms are in next 75 days. So we have to wait until after the period end, and we've collected those debtors than in January and February after the period end. We then had an inflow of GBP 2.6 million, which was the net proceeds from the placing in August '24, and we finished the period with a GBP 2 million cash balance. If we move on to the balance sheet. The net assets at the period end were GBP 2.6 million versus GBP 0.9 million at the end of June. The increase in net assets is really a result of the August placing where we raised the GBP 2.6 million that we just mentioned. This increase in net assets can largely be seen in the cash balance of GBP 2 million at the end of December, which increased from GBP 0.9 million at the end of June. The trade and other receivables increased by GBP 0.5 million to GBP 0.9 million at the period end. And as I've just covered in the cash flow statement, this was driven by a large proportion of revenue occurring through November and December, and we've collected these debtors after the period end. Also notably though, the tax receivable of GBP 0.3 million, GBP 0.2 million of that related to FY '24. And we've collected those R&D tax credits paid by HMI [indiscernible] in February, just last month. And so there's GBP 0.1 million of that better than being approved for the following period. Most of the elements on the balance sheet were largely similar to what we reported in the prior period. So that concludes the financial review. I'll now pass it back over to Arron, to take us through the operational review.

Thank you, Andrew. Can you just pop on to the next slide, please. So just as a brief reminder, we refreshed and restructured the Board in August '24. So, as I've introduced myself, I'm the CEO, having founded a company with Dr. David Bunka, who's the fellow in the middle there. Andrew has already introduced himself. So that leaves Adam, who's our non-exec chair. So Adam's a registered pathologist and an expert in preclinical growth development. So you can imagine where Adam's interest is in the business. Adam's worked for AstraZeneca for over a decade before starting up his own pathology consultancy service. Tim is the second financial expert we have on the board, and I have broad experience in the [ alien ]environment, having been both the CFO - kind of - CEO in that context. And the Board just essentially restructured with a focus on streamlining Aptamer, both financially and to renew the focus on developing and exploiting licensable assets. And essentially to structure the business generating passive income from that strategy. And I have to say it's been a pleasure working with this team. They're fully aligned, fully focused. And I'd like to think that we are making really, really good strides in the right direction. We've built -- building steady progress. I think it's worth pointing out that we're a very hands-on and incentivized team. We're in contact daily and they're completely focused on returning shareholder value. [indiscernible], change the slide, please. So this is an update on the fee-for-service development. So over the past 6 months, we've signed four agreements with top 20 pharma companies, mainly around critical reagents which effectively would be used to support drug development activities within pharma companies. We've extended a past successful contract with another top 20 pharma partners who essentially optimizing existing project in the bioprocessing space, which will be used going forward as part of that kind of efforts. We've also signed several of the smaller deals with biopharma and biotechnology companies in a range of different areas. The project, which is quite interesting, with the unnamed genetics medicine partner progressed to the next phase, following customer validation of the binders which will be used for drug delivery. So, in short, they tested our Optimers in their own labs and demonstrated functionality. We've also successfully completed our project, developing binders for noninvasive prenatal screening for placental diseases. So this binder or binders can form the basis of the diagnostic kits, and we now have significant interest from top biotech companies who are evaluating the technology in their own labs with good success. I might add a [ better view ] to licensing. Another successfully delivered crop project is around enzyme modulation, which we haven't really discussed before, and it's relatively tricky to explain but I'll have to go. The best way to think about enzymes is the workforces for processes used routinely in life sciences. And they can be used for manufacturing materials or as part of kits to diagnose disease. So they're very versatile molecules. And generating binders that can modify or modulate enzyme function can essentially program these enzymes to work more efficiently and to have better performance characteristics in certain applications. So here, we've generated a suite of binders that essentially offer performance advantages for enzymes, use of things like next-generation sequencing and gene synthesis. So these products have been evaluated externally. They've been shown to work by external partners and have very high performance and so licensing discussions are underway in several areas. And finally, we have a pipeline update. So I think while pipelines can generally be seen as nebulous concept. Our pipeline in my opinion, should be thought that there's a window to these high-value opportunities, not necessarily a tool to assess fee-for-service revenue. So movement in the pipeline is specifically accumulation of deals in negotiation, as Andrew touched on, is therefore, a measure of progress. It's a critical measure of progress actually. As discussed at the last update, we've restructured the sales team to focus on pipeline build. And I can report, we've added around GBP 1 million to the pipeline since the last quarter, and it now stands at approximately -- sorry, about GBP 5.1 million with, importantly, 15 or so opportunities in late-stage discussions. Most of them, as Andrew pointed out, currently under contract review or moving towards signature. So -- can we move on to the next slide, please. So this is -- this slide really exemplifies the high-value assets that have been driven from the platform. So I've got a brief update on each of these areas. So these are opportunities that have turned into 3 potentially high-value IP-based licensing opportunities. So if you remember the opportunity with Unilever, this was where we developed binders that can be used to treat malodor or body odor by essentially silencing the bacteria that live in the armpit from making bad smells. It obviously has huge transformational potential for the company. So in terms of an update, we've extended the contract in September '24, skin testing was initiated, which is the next phase of development in December '24. And we've shown the Optimer as stable over to 48 hours in skin samples, which is a great kind of time point from a deodorizing point of view. So essentially, all the work is completed from our side, and we're currently waiting for the lab test now at Unilever. So the project is currently under -- is working. It's on its right through their system. One of that here is and you can hear it from me here first. We're now working on our second contract with Unilever on a separate project. We are currently negotiating legal on. And I do look forward to updating you all on that in due course. So secondly, we move on to NeuroBio. If you remember, this was around developing a diagnostic test to detecting early-stage Alzheimer's, potentially 10 to 20 years earlier than symptoms occur. So I'm pleased here to report that our binders have now been validated in clinical samples to the highest level of validation possible. And we're now working -- led by our partner company NeuroBio and Baroness Greenfield on a larger clinical study to validate the diagnostics as we speak. So internally, we've demonstrated successfully the first iteration of an immuno-assay, which is designed to work on the type of clinical analyzers that are installed in most hospitals and test centers. The idea here is to work on a format that will obviously have the most market traction and penetration possible when developed and launched as a product. I'm obviously looking forward to updating on that as progress unfolds. And then lastly, we're going to the liver fibrosis. So this is an area where we're looking at using our technology for delivering drugs to specific cells. And one of the main challenges in drug development is that, in essence, delivering molecules very selectively to certain tissue types. And we focus here on fibrotic tissue in liver, in particular, to address an unmet need and essentially align our platform with current requirements in the drug discovery space. So I'm pleased here to update that the deal signed with AstraZeneca in July '24 has been successful scientifically with in vitro, which is essentially the lab-based portion of the work being complete. And this links through to our in-house data based on the delivery of siRNA molecules to the same cell type. And this time, we've delivered -- we've essentially coupled siRNA molecules that have the capability to silence molecules associated with fibrosis. And we've demonstrated that we can deliver those to the liver cells selectively and these essentially show promise in reversing markers of fibrosis. So this, when you combine with the recent success with the Genetics Medicines Company, which was another delivery project that we had externally validated. This gives us lots of confidence that we should now progress to what's called a pivotal animal study, which is where we would demonstrate the functionality in an animal model. And this will essentially then give us the data to enable discussions to move towards more therapeutic type deals that you're used to seeing with companies that are engaging in this type of work with large pharma. So if we could just move on to the next slide, please. So as previously discussed, the business model is to generate fee-for-service revenue. So one of the important thing to note here is this increased number of licensing opportunities. So the general model here is to do fee-for-service work and have that turn into IP-based licensing opportunities that can underpin essentially the cost base of the company. So on the last slide, I discussed at length these three prime assets that sits alongside the -- that sat alongside a smaller licensing opportunity in critical reagents, which is why the number is four and not three. I'm pleased to report that since the last time we gave an update, we've now completed development of several other assets and started commercial discussions regarding our licensing, and I touched on these earlier on previous slides. So three assets in enzyme modulation. There's optimism for early-stage fetal diagnostics and two additional assets in the delivery space. The important thing to note here is the expansion of the licensing opportunities over the past 6 months from four to 10. And this brings us closer to tipping the balance towards generating some form -- or generating passive income to supplement our fee for revenue stream. So in my mind, this is a portfolio [indiscernible]. We've validated technologies essentially waiting in line for negotiated licensing deals. So if you look at the type of deals that we're presenting here, any one of these could potentially be transformational to the business, given our GBP 3 million cost base. Now I'd love to be able to give more clarity on exact timelines for all of these, but that's obviously very challenging to do. But what I will say, and potentially go out on a limb, is that we expect some of these to materialize before the year-end. But if I don't, and it takes a month or so extra, that's not necessarily to be seen as a bad thing because it literally makes no sense for the long-term growth of the business to take a poor deal to forces agreements into a particular reporting period. And I personally don't think it's in the best interest for the shareholders to do that. So if we can move on to the next slide, please. So this is really just to wrap up. And in summary, I'd like to leave you all with four key take-home messages. So this is a platform that we've developed growth and the platform targets a $210 billion market for Affinity ligands. We have the foundations, and we've got the relationships with all of the top 10 pharma companies 75% of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies, demonstrating the need. We're moving these [indiscernible] working products and [indiscernible] licensing negotiated deals. And we've developed several additional assets leading to six more licensing opportunities in our licensing pipeline. And we are really focused on the business models to secure IP and leverage these lucrative -- these potentially lucrative IP-based licensing deals. So the Board and the management team are working really hard to deliver these opportunities in news flow, and we look forward to uniting shareholders as soon as possible with exciting news and more updates. So that essentially concludes the formal part of the presentation, and we will now move on to any questions you may have.

[Operator Instructions] We have received a number of questions and want to start the Q&A session off with this one here which reads as follows, "how do you see the company dealing with the added volume of work should lucrative contracts materialize from your visit to the U.S.?"

Yes, that's a good question. I don't mind taking that one. As you say, our visits to the U.S. is extremely productive. We've met with the existing customers. We met with potential partners, and we've essentially discussed everything from the potential application of the technology in proteomic-based platforms, all the way through to radioligand discovery and delivery. So essentially, we have the capability and capacity in our current team to deliver our current sales pipeline and any additional opportunities that may have come from that trip to the U.S.

Turning to the next question. "Given the strong opportunities of GBP 5.1 million, does Aptamer have enough funding to deliver the potential revenue from this pipeline? "

I'll take that one, Arron. In a word, yes. I think we do have the funding. The timing, as I mentioned, when I was talking through this, the timing of the pipeline conversion is hard to predict and contracts do take time to negotiate, particularly where we look to retain the IP. But as Arron touched on, that's where we see the value in the business. So as much as possible, we will continue to look to retain that IP. The pleasing thing about that GBP 5.1 million pipeline is that GBP 3.2 million of it is in advanced stage. So we're hopeful of conversion of an element of that over the coming months. And the company has sufficient funding to allow that bit of the pipeline to be converted, and we'll look to do so. And any of that conversion then we'll just further extend the runway that we've got. And as I mentioned, we've got GBP 2 million in the bank at the end of February. So we've got a good runway from where we stand today.

The next question here. "Why is there a significant time frame between contract signing and the start of revenue recognition and cash flows?"

Do you want me to? I don't mind taking that one.

Yes.

It's generally down to the complex nature of the opportunities. So in some situations, you can have several weeks of technical -- in-depth technical conversation with the customers to fully understand the problems they have to develop a solution to them. And then you effectively have to build a pitch deck. You have to present to the technical stakeholders within the business, the solution and then it has to go through the buying chain internally. And that with bigger companies can just take a bit of time to agree. On top of that, because we look for cash, upfront cash on some -- on our deals, and we look to maintain -- to maximize value long term with the IP, that can then have some impact on conversations with legal -- with the legal teams within those businesses. So things can just be a little bit protractive because we [indiscernible] to get the best deals we can for the company. I think that's probably as much as I can add to that. It's just we could do shorter time frames on the deals, but then we just -- we wouldn't have -- we wouldn't be having and getting the best deal for the business.

And the next question is really around cash, and asks, "how long is the cash runway on the current position?"

Okay. I'll go into that in a bit more detail. So as we've mentioned, there was GBP 2 million in cash at the end of the period, and we've still got GBP 2 million in cash at the end of February, having collected on those year-ed debtors and having collected the R&D tax credit. The cost base now is circa GBP 3 million per annum, so GBP 250,000 a month. So on that -- just on that basis, that GBP 2 million will last 8 months. So that would take us out to October time. And that's assuming no revenue. And clearly, we're not in a position of no revenue as we stand today. We took GBP 0.5 million of contracts through -- going through the lab into this current period. We've got particularly about GBP 3.2 million of late-stage negotiation pipeline that we're currently working on closing. We'd expect a healthy element of that to be closed during this period towards the end of this financial year. So -- so there's lots of opportunity there to extend well beyond the end of October. So -- so that's all the numbers, I guess, and that's as much as we can say, but we're confident in the runway that we've got. We've got sufficient to see us to the end of October with no revenue. But clearly, we've got revenue coming through, and that will all to extend that runway further.

The next question here, "have you managed to hit your cost reduction target?"

Yes. So yes, we took some [indiscernible]. We took a significant cost reduction in FY '24, where we took all the quick wins really. And we managed to take a few further reductions around the time of the placing, restructuring the senior leadership team and reducing the headcount ever so slightly. So we're now down to that GBP 3 million per annum cost base. And that provides us a lean cost base. It reduces the pressure on the cash reserves as we just talked about and helps to maximize the runway there. Any further cutting of the costs, I think, would be potentially compromising the skills based within the business, but the structure that we've got now has not compromised our scientific capabilities and will allow us to deliver that sales pipeline that we're looking to convert.

Turning to the next question. "Have you managed to find any further opportunities in the consumer goods space at [indiscernible] use?"

Yes, in short. And as I kind of alluded to in the presentation previously and that we are currently in negotiations for a second project with Unilever in that space, and I'll update or we will update in due course on that.

Next question here. "How far progressed with the licensing discussions for the enzyme modulating Optimers with big pharma?"

That's pretty well discussed. There are different sides of the placement. So we have some where we were head to kind of agreement stage where we're kind of working on fleshing out with the terms of the deals in terms of royalties and upfront payments. And then we have other -- another one is undergoing technical evaluation in the labs with that particular person. And we're meeting fairly soon with our business development team to discuss potential licensing arrangements.

Next question is really around growth, and it asks "what your strategy is for the next 18 months in terms of growth?"

Yes. I think -- we're going to -- we've recently hired two new business development executives or business development managers, one of whom started last week. So we're just going to really focus on growing the sales pipeline and converting the sales pipeline into revenue essentially to underpin the kind of cost base. And we'll also continue to focus on progressing the liver fibrosis projects, the Alzheimer's disease. And as far as we can have influence on it to work with the Unilever for the deodorant project, but also these enzyme modulation opportunities that's something that we're going to look into, into a bit more detail. So we think we found a really sweet spot essentially for the platform to operate.

And the next question here. "How will Aptamer deliver shareholder value?"

I think by keep doing what we're doing. Plugging away, keeping the cost base as low as possible and focusing on revenue generation and switching to get more and more income from these licensing fees, which will essentially be 100% margin. And the more licensing revenue, we get the less dependence on fee-for-service revenue the company becomes -- this whole concept of passive income generation is really where we're going to focus to try and underpin the business and get us close to kind of breakeven as we can with that licensing revenue.

We have another question here. "What more than fibrotic liver asset be tested in an animal model? And is there intention for AstraZeneca to take this forward? And in the future, could AstraZeneca pay for this?"

That's a very good question. So the lab-based part of that work has been successful and we're showing selective delivery of AstraZeneca siRNA to the fibrotic liver, and we've demonstrated what's called knockdown in that tissue. The intention really will always be to move this into what's called preclinical studies. So we really need to demonstrate functionality of these molecules as a delivery vehicle in an animal model. So we're currently discussing with multiple centers the best models and the best animal systems to use in order to get the best, most accurate results at this preclinical stage. But once we found the best partner, we'll be focused on moving forward and we'll announce that as we go along. But we're also progressing this asset and the asset with further in-house studies. So as I mentioned in the presentation, we have found some siRNAs that demonstrate ability to reverse markers of fibrosis. So again, this is in line with our business model. And interestingly, we retain the IP wholly on this asset. So we've got multiple large pharma partners really interested actually had a few small biopharma companies globally in the fibrotic liver delivery vehicle. We have a few steps to go as a company. We need to prove the system at a preclinical stage. We need to get some evidence in animal models that it's functional. And once we've done that, we'll be in a much stronger position as a company to negotiate higher-value deals and better quality deals with these big pharma companies that are interested.

You've answered quite a number of questions, maybe time for just a couple more. This question here on the Aptamer platform, "how does your Aptamer platform compared to traditional antibody solutions? And how is this differentiation helping you win market share?"

[Indiscernible] Well, we like to think that it's a better system. As with all platform technologies, it has pluses and minuses. Aptamers and Optimers will be better at certain applications and vice versa with antibodies. The key really is to find those niche application areas where the platforms excel, and which is why you have platform technologies like macrocyclic peptides and other recombinant antibody formats, all finding their kind of niche area. For example, there's ranges of what are considered to be undruggable targets, where you look at -- which are natural nucleic acid binding proteins or RNA binding molecules where small molecules and antibodies really struggle to have a druggable effect on those molecules. So if you think about Aptamer or Optimers being new-plate assets, they obviously form -- they're obviously a better kind of natural molecule to serve as drug compounds to activate or inactivate those targets.

And just a final question on the same thing. "How is the Aptamer platform developing in terms of overall interest and/or for forward demand for prospective clients?"

I think it's developing really well. It's -- I mean, we've got three platforms or two platforms. So we've got a DNA-based platform and an RNA-based platform. And then we have this platform called Optimer plus, which is essentially the hybrid molecule between DNA and peptides. So it essentially has a DNA backbone and it has amino acid [ side change ] because they are very technical answer, but ultimately trying to bridge the gap somewhere between a nucleic acid aptamer and an antibody. So when we're offering these services to different customers, there's obviously different application areas that each of the kind of platforms that we have speaks to. And we're seeing pretty good interest in them because of the benefits over antibodies. One of the key areas of interest at the moment is looking at the molecules as potential delivery systems for things called radioligands and radionuclides. So that's targeted radiotherapy delivery. And I'm fairly confident that there will be some updates in that space in due course.

Perfect, thank you Arron and Andrew, thank very much for answering those questions from investors. Of course, the company can review all the questions submitted today, we will publish out the responses on the Investor Meet Company platform. And before redirecting investors [indiscernible] feedback, final thing to do, Arron, and if I just ask you for a few closing comments, that would be great.

Yes. I think I spoke quite a lot today, so I'll keep it pretty short. Look, as always, I appreciate people taking the time to listen. Thanks, everyone, for their time and they're ongoing supporting the company. And we just all look forward to keep working hard and producing news flow to give you all updates and give you updated progress on all the different areas we're working on.

Arron, Andrew, thank you very much for updating it today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session. I should now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete [indiscernible] will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of Aptamer Group PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all.